


"There Might've Been Moments"

by 105NorthTower



Series: The Chocolate Chips [1]
Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:28:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29272506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/105NorthTower/pseuds/105NorthTower
Summary: Chum and Penny's visit to London.
Relationships: Dave Polworth & Cormoran Strike, Robin Ellacott/Cormoran Strike
Series: The Chocolate Chips [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149713
Comments: 16
Kudos: 44





	"There Might've Been Moments"

Strike waved the Polworths' black cab off on its way to Paddington, and gave silent but fervent thanks that his oldest friend didn't like London.

The past few days had been a very mixed bag.

True, Dave liked The Tottenham ( _Good of them to cover the walls with wank material, Diddy! Must be a great help to you in your current predicament_ ) and they'd spent a drunken afternoon there while Penny took the girls shopping in Knightsbridge.

The tickets to the Emirates that Strike had managed to procure by means of promising several more favours to Shanker (who knew _a bloke with contacts better than Arsene's as it happens_ ) including guaranteeing not to bother him for two whole weeks ( _because there's a deal going so far South that it'll be penguin-food if I don't crack some fuckin' heads, Bunsen, and it's best you don't know anything about it_ ) had also been a big hit.

But the promised meeting with Robin had been an unmitigated disaster. 

It started well. Lucy agreed to entertain the Polworths' children for a few hours so Strike, Dave, Penny and Robin could meet ( _we'll make cupcakes, Stick, and it'll be so nice for you, like a double date! No, I know, not a double date really, but a bit like one and it'll be good practice!_ )

The pub they chose sold eight real ales and by the time Robin arrived, (looking flustered after a suspect parcel at Monument made her late) the old established friends had already set the world to rights in three different ways. 

She skirted the sweep of the bar and Strike felt the pleasurable jolt in his belly that seemed to be his due now after a few hours of her absence. He was used to that, but then Penny leaned over to her husband and whispered (if that was the right word for a remark that was heard by half the pub) "Oh, it's been a while since we saw THAT look, Polly!"

Robin noticed them (hard not to really, when Penny had leapt to her feet and waved hard enough to bring in a Chinook) and approached the table. By the time the food was ordered, Robin and Penny were bosom friends. Strike had never observed her form a new bond (only Ilsa, and there his partner hadn't stood an earthly against Ilsa's determined enthusiasm) and to watch her initial self-doubt and reserve capitulate to her innate kindness and interest in others was ... the word "charming" kept coming back to him, no matter how many times he filed it away under the headings "Anachronistic, "Unhelpful" and "What Is This Strike, A Dorcus Pengelly Short Story?"

He was jolted out of a Robin-based reverie by Dave and spent the meal trying to divert his mate's attention from where it was stuck ( _Christ, Diddy, you must have to take a wrench to it at the end of the day or how d'you get into your pyjama bottoms?_ ) In the end Strike had to pretend to be eager to hear all about a TED talk on food labelling Dave was planning to present to the next meeting of his local chapter of Mebyon Kernow just to move him on.

Robin was under an onslaught of Penny-love and seemed to be enjoying it rather too much; Strike found her bursts of involuntary giggles both distracting and worrying, as he imagined it was due to excerpts from the book of his teenage exploits being abridged for Robin's amusement. His worst fears were confirmed when the women collapsed against each other and clung on through a tsunami of phrases that made Strike's ears burn ( _... and the swimming trunks were never found ... they don't make lampposts like that any more ... I've never eaten watermelon since and I don't expect I ever will ..._ )

Robin rose at the end of their meal, hugged Penny and kissed Dave on the cheek. They had the usual good-humoured disagreement about who would pick up the bill (Dave and Penny insisted the hardest and carried off the spoils) and then she was gone, with a "See you Monday, Cormoran!" and a waft of Narcisso.

Left with the Polworths, Strike braced himself for what he knew was about to hit him.

With any luck, Cornish independence was coming.


End file.
